A Formal Affair

Here at CIMBA there are three formal dinners. All 152 of us pile onto buses in our best dress and head to a gourmet restaurant for a sit down five course meal. Our first formal dinner was on Wednesday night. Well Wednesday was the start of a gruelish week for me. I had a presentation in one class, then I had a presentation, paper, and blog post due Thursday, not to mention the quiz, test, three chapter tutorials, and project I did today, Friday. After this long day I snuck a quick run in and showered. Here's where things got a bit hairy...literally. You see our showers are about the size of a hall closet at home, maybe smaller, so you can imagine what trying to shave your legs would be like. It's not a pleasant experience. It took me a whopping twenty minutes to complete that ridiculous task. I got ready, actually did my hair and makeup, something I haven't done much of since arriving here and having eight am classes every day. After this long, arduous process I was ready. We went to a restaurant in Castelfranco called Ristorante Barbesin. It was about a twenty minute drive in the "rain". Some girls busted out umbrellas for this drizzle, obviously they've never been to Oregon. This was nothing. We got to the restaurant and were seated at tables of ten. It was my friend Kristen's birthday and another guy, Levi's. We had the birthday table going on. The food was about one hundred times better than the cafeteria garb. they've been passing off to us here. We started with some gourmet appetizers. Then came risotto, followed by pasta with duck, and then the best steak ever with scrumptious potatoes. For dessert we had an out of this world peanut butter ice cream/mouse in a chocolate cup topped with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar. If that weren't enough a waiter came around and individually poured hot chocolate on top of the entire thing until it look like a molten lava chocolate volcano that exploded. It was so freaking good. We drank great white and red wine during the courses and espresso for dessert. It was an amazing evening and I can't wait for the next one.